Shelton Miles, found guilty by a jury in May of murdering a North Scranton convenience store customer in March 2024, will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Before rendering the sentence, Lackawanna County Judge Terrence R. Nealon pointed out Miles shot Jose Miguel Tatis-Camilo of Hazleton to death and seriously injured cashier Gopi Soni, in an attempt to rob the store in what was a needless act.
Miles didn’t yell, “Nobody move,” but instead simply shot Tatis-Camillo as he was chatting with Soni.
Deputy Chief Joseph Lafferty, District Attorney Brian Gallagher, Deputy District Attorney Sara Varela and Sgt. Detective Francis McLane stop for comment Wednesday after Shelton Miles was sentenced to life in prison without parole for a 2024 convenience store killing. (GERI GIBBONS/STAFF PHOTO)
“It was unnecessary,” Nealon said, adding that many in the courtroom saw the video of the incident in which Miles stepped over Tatis-Camillo’s body twice before leaving the store with money from the cash register.
Nealon also sentenced Miles to 132 to 265 months for attempted murder of Soni and 114 to 228 months for robbery.
Although originally Miles originally indicated to the court he would not attend the sentencing, he not only came to the proceeding, but spoke.
Miles said that, although he has a mental illness and a problem with alcohol, those conditions couldn’t account for his actions.
“I killed an innocent man, a man who didn’t do anything to me. A man I didn’t even know,” Miles said. “Its something I can’t correct.”
Nealon read through a list of charges Miles was found guilty of dating back to 1978, when he was found guilty of armed robbery in Mississippi, and continuing through 2020, when he was placed in the Veterans Treatment Court program after a road rage incident.
“There has been an ongoing pattern of serious violent criminal behavior,” Nealon said.
District Attorney Brian Gallagher said the criminal justice system failed the public in regard to Miles.
“This is someone who should never have been on the streets, let alone on the streets of Lackawanna County,” he said.
While Tatis-Camilo and Soni came to Lackawanna County to work and improve their lives, Miles came to the area and ruined the lives of those around him and certainly those involved in the case.
He pointed out that Soni, who testified during the trial, wasn’t in the courtroom, because she was petrified to be in the same room with Miles.
Overcoming her fear to testify at May’s trial was an act of courage, Gallagher said.
Claudia Tatis, Tatis-Camilo’s sister, told the court her family was united and attempted to navigate his murder with grace, but were left grieving and broken at the same time.
She said some days she would just be going about her life, when she was hit with a wave of grief. The family is trying to be strong but still processing her brother’s needless death.
She said the family hoped Miles would have a long life to pay for her brother’s death.
“My brother’s young life was cut short by somebody who had already lived theirs,” she said.
The Tatis-Camillo family attended the sentencing and were present throughout the trial.
Gallagher lauded them for their consistency and grace.
“You were truly a pleasure to work with,” he told them after the proceeding.